Q: A few days before my family and I were due to go on a package holiday, the travel agency informed us that two of the tours we booked were replaced with different ones. This was unacceptable to us, as we had chosen the specific package because of the selection of tours it featured and the places these tours would take us to. Can we cancel the booking? What kind of compensation are we entitled to?

A: The Package Travel Regulations state that should the travel agency, prior to the departure date, cancel or make a significant alteration to an essential part of the package travel contract, you are legally entitled to suitable alternative arrangements or, where applicable, to compensation.

If the changed package is unsuitable for you, before offering to give you a refund, the travel agency may offer a replacement package of equivalent or superior quality.

It may also offer a lower-quality package. If you opt for the latter, you are entitled to the difference in price. If none of the proposed packages are acceptable to you, you may opt to cancel your booking and claim back a refund.

In this case you may also be entitled to a compensation for the inconvenience of cancelling your holiday only a few days before departure.

If, however, the change in the package holiday was beyond the travel agency's control, legally no compensation can be claimed.

For instance, the agency cannot be held responsible for any change in plans due to bad weather, strikes or unavoidable breakdowns.